


Lessons

by Not_You



Series: It's Weird When Shaw Is Nice [8]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Fluff, Gardens & Gardening, M/M, Multi, Nothing Hurts, alex and darwin bring me joy, also nothing happens, fluffy fluffy fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-04
Updated: 2012-12-04
Packaged: 2017-11-20 06:37:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/582382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Not_You/pseuds/Not_You
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which everyone agrees that learning is fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons

Anya likes D'Warin, and is very put out when he and Alex seem to vanish into thin air as the visit goes on. Part of it is that Alex's magic is acting up worse than ever. D'Warin can turn his skin to stone (and other things, D'Warin is amazing and should play with her more) so it's safe for him to stay there, and Anya's glad Alex has company, but she wishes she could go too. But Mother doesn't trust her to keep her shielding charm on, and he may be right because it has a way of slipping off without her noticing. Mother says he despairs of her, but she knows he doesn't really mean it. Today she's in the garden , painting the cautious old trees as they blossom. They're the last, wise plants that know how late into spring it can freeze. Today is the first real day of discrete flowers in the barely-there cloud of pink that precedes them, and she copies their delicate trumpet shape as best she can.

"Relax," D'Warin murmurs from somewhere nearby, and Anya forgets her project entirely to make her way through the bushes (paths take too long when your legs are short) to find him. She's a bit exasperated to find Alex too, but she might have guessed. He's pale and shaky, both his hands in D'Warin's. Their eyes are locked, and they're breathing together, D'Warin walking backward and leading Alex along the path, both of them barefoot. Anya suddenly wishes she had brought her paints, because Alex and D'Warin look like her drawing master put them there as a lesson in contrast. It's far more than just their skins, it's everything from their expressions to their clothes, which are one of the wheel matches of blue on Alex and orange on D'Warin, both of them radiant in the sun.

"D'Warin…"

"Breathe. Look around, it's a beautiful day."

"What's it like in Wakanda this time of year?"

"Green. Very green. Things don't come slowly, like they do here." His voice is calm and almost hypnotic as he tells Alex about the flowers that bloom in the morning to die at night, and the birds that sing in human voices. He leads him along, and gets Alex to breathe during a flareup and actually make it go away. Anya stares in awe as D'Warin coaxes Alex with a smile to do something he hasn't managed in all his months with them, utterly serene and sure he can do it. They kiss halfway across the little bridge over the pond, and Anya spies a little bit before sneaking back and collecting her things.

She asks Mother how he tamed his horse, and it turns out that he did it mostly the same way. Except with no kissing, because Magnus is a horse. Well, sometimes Mother kisses him, but not on the mouth. Father just laughs, kissing Mother's cheek. "I guess his education is being furthered."

T'Challa says much the same, and after everyone starts finding D'Warin and Alex under every bush and tucked into every dark corner, he's not particularly surprised when his ward petitions to remain a while after them. They of course ask Father, who just shrugs and says, 'Why not?' which means he's actually pleased with the idea and doesn't want to show it too much. He has also been talking to T'Challa about Azari, but Anya isn't sure just what's going on. Her being five years older than Azari does come up, though, and Father says something about it probably not mattering too much when they're older. Bored, Anya goes and finds D'Warin and Alex and pesters them into taking her riding.

Charles likes to know about things, so he's probably the second-happiest when D'Warin stays (after Alex, of course) because now he can ask him all about Wakanda. Sometimes for her natural history lesson she sits with them and asks whatever questions she likes. These are the best lessons, and D'Warin helps her make copies of the pictures from Charles's books while she learns all kinds of things. That begetting women are more common than bearing men in Wakanda, the exact opposite of their own country, and that the river mermaids there steal boys on starry nights at the height of the wet season, and that most come back within a few years to be master fishermen and boatmakers. Some return with webbed hands and feet, and a clear third eyelid. Anya is spellbound, and demands that D'Warin draw one of these altered creatures.

"What do they say about their time away?" Charles asks as the picture shades into existence. D'Warin draws well, and he draws fast, and so help her Anya will one day be this good.

"Only that it was beautiful. Some weep."

Anya watches him finish his portrait, and that night she dreams of turbid green river water and singing mermaids.


End file.
